STS-87 Day 6 Highlights

Following a wake up call from Mission Control at 12:46 p.m. CST this
afternoon, Commander Kevin Kregel and his crew - Pilot Steve Lindsey,
Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla, Winston Scott and Takao Doi and
Payload Specialist Leonid Kadenyuk -- will begin their final
preparations for the rendezvous and retrieval of the SPARTAN science
satellite which was deployed earlier in the flight but failed to
operate properly.

As Kregel flies Columbia to a point where Spartan is a few feet
above the cargo bay, Doi and Scott, in their spacewalking suits, will
be positioned opposite each other in foot restraints on the SPARTAN
platform truss in Columbia's payload bay, ready to manually grab the
Spartan free-flyer and then lower the satellite down into its latches
in the cargo bay. They will recapture the satellite using a procedure
similar to one they rehearsed prior to the flight in the event the
Shuttle's robotic arm could not be used to retrieve the satellite.

Formal EVA preparations will begin around 3:00 p.m. Central time.
About two hours later, at 4:51 p.m., Kregel will perform the Terminal
Initiation (TI) burn to put Columbia on an intercept course with the
Spartan spacecraft.

The spacewalk is planned to begin at about 6:00 p.m. Central
time. Columbia is predicted to reach the vicinity of Spartan about
7:25 p.m. as Kregel flies Columbia to a point where the slowly
spinning satellite will be hovering just over the cargo bay. If all
goes well, Scott and Doi should grab the satellite sometime over the
next hour or so, with the manual berthing of SPARTAN expected to be
completed by about 8:30 p.m. The retrieval should leave Scott and Doi
ample time to complete many of the International Space Station
assembly tests planned for the mission involving the testing of a
special crane which may be used in the future to haul large components
from one station module to another for spacewalking astronauts.

In preparation for the spacewalk, the crew yesterday lowered the air
pressure in Columbia's cabin from the normal sea-level pressure of
14.7 pounds per square inch to 10.2 pounds per square inch, the
pressure equivalent of about 10,000 feet altitude. The lower pressure
helps prepare the spacewalkers to purge nitrogen from their bodies to
prevent a condition commonly known as the bends when they go to the
lower pressure, pure oxygen spacesuits.

Columbia is about 50 nautical miles behind SPARTAN, closing steadily
for tonight's rendezvous.

The shuttle itself remains in excellent condition, orbiting the
Earth every 90 minutes at an altitude of about 176 statute miles. The
next STS-87 status report will be issued around 5 p.m. Monday
afternoon.

Columbia's astronauts were awakened at 12:46 p.m. Central time today
to the sound of."Walk of Life" by Dire Straits to begin their final
preparations for tonight's spacewalk by Winston Scott and Takao Doi to
manually capture the SPARTAN science satellite and to test tools and
techniques for the assembly of the International Space Station. At the
time of crew wakeup, Columbia was 46 statute miles behind SPARTAN.

Scott and Doi began suiting up for their spacewalk around 3:00
p.m. Central time with the assistance of Mission Specialist Kalpana
Chawla, who will choreograph tonight planned 6 and a half operation
from Columbia's aft flight deck.

While those preparations took place, Commander Kevin Kregel and
Pilot Steve Lindsey conducted a series of jet firings to narrow the
gap between Columbia and SPARTAN. The major maneuver took place at
4:51 p.m. when Kregel conducted the Terminal Initiation, or TI burn,
to place the shuttle on an intercepting path to arrive directly
beneath the slowly spinning satellite.

The spacewalk began at about 6:00 p.m. Central time. Columbia is
predicted to reach the vicinity of Spartan about 7:25 p.m. as Kregel
flies Columbia to a point where the satellite will be hovering just
over the cargo bay. If all goes well, Scott and Doi should grab the
satellite sometime over the next hour or so, with the manual berthing
of SPARTAN expected to be completed by about 8:30 p.m. The retrieval
should leave Scott and Doi ample time to complete many of the
International Space Station assembly tests planned for the mission
involving the testing of a special crane which may be used in the
future to haul large components from one station module to another for
spacewalking astronauts.

As Kregel flies Columbia to a point where Spartan is a few feet
above the cargo bay, Doi and Scott, in their spacewalking suits, will
be positioned opposite each other in foot restraints on the SPARTAN
platform truss in Columbia's payload bay, ready to manually grab the
Spartan free-flyer and then lower the satellite down into its latches
in the cargo bay. They will recapture the satellite using a procedure
similar to one they rehearsed prior to the flight in the event the
Shuttle's robotic arm could not be used to retrieve the satellite.

After SPARTAN has been secured in the payload bay, the astronauts
will use the remainder of the planned six-hour spacewalk to test tools
and procedures which would be used in assembly of the International
Space Station.

The Shuttle orbiter, Columbia, continues to perform flawlessly with
no systems problems. The next STS-87 status report will be issued at
approximately 6 a.m. Tuesday.